Gumdrop City

Gumdrop City is a true-crime-inspired story fictionalized through the eyes of a father and widower. While much of the narrative is fiction, the disturbing final scene and the existence of the room itself are based on a real case. In reality, police were involved, though the story reshapes events into a darker psychological horror. The crime was real. The room was real. The rest is story - built to make the event feel as real as it was remembered.
This story was first written in 1984 after the author heard about the case in an Abnormal Psychology class at Western Washington University. Gumdrop City is also included in the short story collection Anthology of Evil. The story inspired the award-winning short horror prequel film Gumdrop, a Short Horror (2020), which received recognition at several international film festivals. Watch the trailer:https://youtu.be/_RdZhgQqXUM